“Croatia recorded a comfortable victory over Ireland and go top of Group C. Slaven Bilic used Vedran Corluka in the centre of defence and played Darijo Srna in his traditional position of right-back in order to play Ivan Rakitic on the right of midfield, and used Ognjen Vukojevic as his holding midfielder. Giovanni Trapattoni announced his XI days ago, and they started as expected (with 1-11 on their backs). Set-pieces played a large part here, but Croatia were the better side – more inventive with their passing, cleverer with their movement, more ruthless in the penalty box.” Zonal Marking

Three thoughts: Hard-hitting Jelavic helps Croatia upend Ireland
“1. Croatia doesn’t miss Ivica Olic: When Ivica Olic returned from injury to play in the playoff games against Turkey last November, he came as a revelation. He is not as technically gifted a player as some of those Slaven Bilic has to choose from, but he has an energy and a muscularity that drives back opposing defences giving the more skilful midfielders space in which to play. Turkey couldn’t cope with him and Croatia, finding the sort of rhythm they hadn’t shown in over three years, swept to a 3-0 victory in Istanbul, taking an early lead and picking Turkey off on the break.” SI – Jonathan Wilson

No luck for the Irish
“Despite being considered a significant second fiddle to Spain and Italy’s cagey, engaging midday draw, we should have seen this coming. Group C was already pressurized given the four teams pitted against one another, yet that pressure increased thanks to the 1-1 result in Gdansk between the presumptive favorites to advance. (That, plus the tension accompanying overnight reports of fighting between fans that resulted in 14 arrested.)” ESPN (Video)